Giuliani forgets about 9/11 attacks at Trump rally

16/08/2016

Former New York City mayor Rudolph Giuliani (Reuters)

Former New York City mayor Rudolph Giuliani appeared to briefly forget about the 11 September, 2001, attacks at a Trump rally this week.

Criticising President Barack Obama in Youngstown ahead of Trump's speech on national security, Mr Giuliani said that in the "eight years, before Obama came along, we didn't have any successful radical Islamic terrorist attack in the United States".

Mr Giuliani was mayor of New York City at the time of the 9/11 attacks and became the face of American grief and determination in the hours after the World Trade Center fell.

His brave and graceful performance in the weeks after the towers' collapse earned him the nickname "America's mayor" and he was soon launched into national political stardom, his name synonymous with the response to the attacks.

A spokesman for the former mayor told media that Giuliani was referring to a lack of major attacks during the remainder of President George W. Bush's term.

Earlier in his speech, the former mayor had made several mentions to the 2001 attacks when expressing support for Trump's running mate, Mike Pence.

Mr Giuliani has fashioned himself as a sharp critic of Mr Obama as well as the Democrats' presidential nominee, Hillary Clinton, whom he was to run against for the US senate in 2000 before bowing out after a cancer diagnosis.